Shutdown Corner

It’s the only thing: Week 7′s best wins

The top three most important, unusual, unexpected, significant or otherwise noteworthy wins from Sunday.

3. Atlanta Falcons 23, Detroit Lions 16. Most of the focus was on the Lions, as their 5-0 start turned them into national media darlings, but Atlanta needed a win as bad as anybody in the league. And if we were all ready to slobber on the 49ers for winning at Ford Field last week, let's save some saliva for the Falcons, too. They're back above .500, tied with Tampa Bay for second place in the NFC South, and just a tiebreaker away from being in wild-card position. They needed it and they went and got it.

2. Kansas City Chiefs 28, Oakland Raiders 0. There are only seven teams in the NFL that are currently riding a win streak of three or more games: the Packers, 49ers, Patriots, Ravens, Steelers, Bengals and ... the Kansas City Chiefs. How about that? The Chiefs are a .500 ball club. After starting the season being outscored 89-10, they've battled back to .500. And they didn't just beat the Raiders, the dismantled them. Sure, it's a little easier when the other team wants to throw you the football six times, but still, you've got to go out there and let Carson Palmer and Kyle Boller throw the ball to you.

1. Houston Texans 41, Tennessee Titans 7. "Oh really? The AFC South might not belong to the Texans, because they have some injuries and the Titans are pretty decent, too? Then how about we just go into Nashville and WHAM -- slap the Titans in the face until they tell us how much they like it." That's what we call a statement game, with the statement being, "The Titans had a really cute 3-2 record, but they are not on the level of the Houston Texans." Houston threw for 296 yards and had two 100-yard rushers. Anybody not convinced that the AFC South isn't Houston's?